Cipher telegrams, materials of diplomatic negotiations and other secret documents available on the Presidential Library’s portal

More than 160 documents of the Archive of the Foreign Policy of the Russian Federation of the Historical and Documentary Department of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs have entered the Collection of digitized archival documents, film and photo materials dedicated to World War II and have become available on the Presidential Library’s portal subordinated to the Administrative Directorate of the President of the Russian Federation.

On June 22, 1941, at 12:15, following the attack of Nazi Germany on the USSR, V. M. Molotov, Deputy Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR and People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs, spoke on the radio on behalf of the Soviet government. The Collection features a draft of this speech, written by him with his own hand.

Almost simultaneously with Germany, its allies and satellites - Hungary, Italy, Romania, Slovakia – opposed to the USSR. However, official notifications of a declaration of war or a break in diplomatic relations reached Moscow, in some cases with great delay due to the intentional disruption of telegraph communications with the USSR by the Axis Powers. According to the submitted documents, the Soviet ambassadors in the aggressor countries and the diplomatic representatives of these countries in the USSR were in an information vacuum and were unable to contact their governments. In this regard, the example of Italy is particularly indicative: information from the Soviet ambassador in Rome, N. V. Gorelkin, about a summons to the Italian Foreign Ministry on June 22 in connection with Italy's declaration of war on the Soviet Union, was received in Moscow only on June 29 through the Soviet envoy in Sweden, A. M. Kollontai.

In connection with the “uncertain” position of the Finnish government, which troops, however, also attacked the Soviet border, on June 24, V. M. Molotov, during a conversation with the Finnish representative in Moscow, pointed out the facts of the armed participation of “neutral” Finland in the war against the USSR. From the very beginning of the conflict, the Soviet Union made diplomatic attempts to withdraw Finland from the war, including through the mediation of the US government. However, at the initial stage of the war, these attempts were unsuccessful.

The repeated diplomatic demarches of the Soviet government on the issue of violation of neutrality were also addressed to those countries that, formally remaining neutral, actually turned into a springboard for military operations against the Soviet Union or into a base for supplying Germany with military materials and weapons (Bulgaria, Sweden).

Documents of the Foreign Ministry spotlight the history of the formation and activities of the anti-Hitler coalition. In the first days of the war, the official representatives of Great Britain, the United States and China expressed support for the Soviet Union in connection with the attack by Nazi Germany and declared their readiness to provide the necessary assistance. On July 12, 1941, a Soviet-British agreement on joint actions in the war against Germany was signed in Moscow. At the same time, contacts were established with representatives of Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, Poland, the Free France movement and its leader, General Charles de Gaulle.

The restoration of diplomatic relations with the governments of Czechoslovakia and Poland (in exile) and allied obligations were recorded in the Soviet-Czechoslovak agreement of July 18, the Soviet-Polish agreement of July 30 and the Soviet-Polish treaty of December 4, 1941.

A special place belongs to documents about the events of December 1941. On December 6, Great Britain declared war on Hitler's accomplices - Finland, Romania and Hungary. On December 7, Japan attacked the US naval base at Pearl Harbor in the Pacific. On December 8, the United States declared war on Japan. On the night of December 9-10, China declared war on Germany and Italy. The war finally took on a global scale. However, in relations with Japan, the Soviet Union for the time being continued to remain neutral, justifiably arguing its position before the allies by the fact that the main battles against the Axis powers were unfolding on the Soviet-German front and the transfer of Soviet forces to the Far East would mean a catastrophe for all participants in the anti-Hitler coalition.

In December 1941, British Foreign Secretary E. Eden arrived in Moscow to negotiate the conclusion of two treaties - on alliance and mutual assistance in the war with Germany and on post-war cooperation. The very fact of the discussion in December 1941 of the issues of the post-war world order testified to the firm confidence of the allies in the victory over Nazism.

On January 1, 1942, in Washington, representatives of the "Big Four" - the USSR, the USA, Great Britain and China - signed the United Nations Declaration on cooperation in the fight against Germany and its allies. On January 2, 22 more states joined the Declaration.

Numerous cipher telegrams and materials of diplomatic negotiations, stored in the collections of the WUA of the Russian Federation, spotlight two main issues in the relations of the allies in the anti-Hitler coalition - about military-technical assistance to the Soviet Union and the early opening of a second front in the west. The starting point in the first question can be considered the Protocol of the Moscow Conference of October 1, 1941, presented in the Collection, which determined the volume of military supplies to the Soviet Union for the next nine months.

The documents show that there were many contradictions between the allies. In February - March 1942, negotiations were actively conducted on organizing a personal meeting between J. Stalin and US President F. Roosevelt to discuss issues of mutual trust, organizing military supplies and the possibility of an early opening of a second front in the west.

A significant set of documents is devoted to one of the most interesting stories in the history of Soviet diplomacy during the Great Patriotic War. In May-June 1942, People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs V. M. Molotov made an official visit to London and Washington for negotiations with British Prime Minister W. Churchill and US President F. Roosevelt. It was the first air flight of a representative of the Soviet government abroad, moreover, made in extreme conditions.

The result of difficult negotiations in London was the signing of the Soviet-British Treaty of May 26, 1942 on an alliance in the war against Nazi Germany and its accomplices in Europe and on cooperation and mutual assistance after the war. A Soviet-American treaty similar in spirit to it on the principles applicable to mutual assistance in waging a war against aggression was signed by the Soviet ambassador in Washington, M. M. Litvinov, on June 11, 1942, the day after V. M. Molotov's departure from the United States. As a result of negotiations in Washington, the Soviet side agreed to a 4-fold reduction in the tonnage of military supplies in the event that the allies open a second front in Europe in 1942.

However, the United Kingdom and the United States have decided to postpone this operation until next year. During his August visit to Moscow, Churchill personally informed Stalin about this, while notifying him of the preparation of a military operation in North Africa in the autumn of 1942. Materials about the Moscow talks are also included in the Collection.  

Since the events on the "diplomatic front" unfolded against the backdrop of fierce fighting on the Soviet-German front, in the midst of the battle for Stalingrad and the Caucasus, on October 19, 1942, Stalin sent a cipher telegram to the Soviet ambassador in London: "We all in Moscow have the impression that Churchill is heading for the defeat of the USSR ... Without such an assumption, it is difficult to explain Churchill's behavior on the issue of a second front in Europe, on the issue of arms supplies to the USSR, which are being progressively reduced, despite the growth in production in England ... finally, on the issue of the systematic bombing of Berlin by the British during September, which Churchill proclaimed in Moscow and which he did not fulfill one iota. This document captures the growing doubts in the Soviet leadership about the prospects for military and political cooperation with the allies in the anti-Hitler coalition, which resulted in serious contradictions between them at the end of the war.

The action is complemented with the activities of the Soviet Foreign Ministry of the circular notes of the People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs V. M. Molotov, addressed to all governments and missions of countries that are not at war with the USSR, about the atrocities of the German authorities in the Soviet territories they seized and against Soviet prisoners of war, as well as about the responsibility that the German government and command had to suffer for the atrocities committed.

In accordance with the List of instructions for the implementation of the Address of the President of the Russian Federation to the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation dated January 15, 2020, the organizers of the Collection of Digitized Archival Documents, Film and Photo Materials "World War II in Archival Documents" are the Federal Archival Agency (Rosarkhiv), the Administrative Directorate of the President of the Russian Federation and the Presidential Library.

The Collection is carried out by Rosarkhiv and federal state archives with the participation of the Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation, the Foreign Intelligence Service of the Russian Federation, the state archives of Belarus and others.

Today, the volume of the Collection exceeds 9 thousand materials including maps, diagrams, periodicals, photographs, newsreels for the period from January 1933 to November 1942.

Archival documents of the Collection World War II in Archival Documents are available from anywhere in the world thanks to the Presidential Library’s portal. Especially for the foreign audience, the titles and annotations to the documents as well as the texts of the accompanying articles are also published in English.

In addition to digitized archival documents, the Collection contains a list of the main Internet projects, databases, other thematic Internet publications of documents, virtual tours of the history of World War II, developed by government agencies of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation and various organizations.